[media-credit name=’GREG SCHMITZ/Herald Photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]Members of a local union joined forces with University of Wisconsin students Thursday to protest the treatment of limited-term employees at the entrance of Memorial Union.

Participants in the rally included American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 171 members, LTE workers and UW students. Demonstrators called for pay reforms for the UW employees to increase their wages.

University of Wisconsin students will be given a chance to vote on a referendum aiming to raise wages for LTE's next week, as well as one regarding the Wisconsin Union Facilities Improvement Plan.

The LTE "living wage" referendum would prohibit the Associated Students of Madison from recommending student segregated-fee funding for UW organizations that do not pay all of their employees a wage equal to or greater than 110 percent of the federal poverty line.

The Wisconsin Union referendum would raise student segregated fees by a maximum of $96 per student per semester to help fund the renovation of Memorial Union and the construction of a new South Campus Union.

Both referendums were addressed during Thursday's rally.

Mike Imbrogno, the treasurer for Local 171, is trying to put pressure on the university and the Wisconsin Unions to raise the wages for all LTEs.

"The university is exploiting the LTEs and making them work for less than a livable wage," Imbrogno said after the rally.

Imbrogno helped lead the group of approximately 30 rallying workers and students that stood in a circle and chanted, "What do we want? Living wage! When do we want it? Now!"

Many LTEs currently earn as little as $7.25 with no benefits, and representatives of Local 171 say they are concerned about the amount of pay that LTEs receive, noting that it is less than employees at Wal-Mart make.

Carl Aniel, a Local 171 member and kitchen employee at the Union, said that UW is being "criminal" in its dealings with LTEs.

Concerns that 130 of the 151 LTEs currently employed by Memorial Union make less than a living wage were repeated throughout the rally.

Molly Glasgow, a member of the Student Labor Action Coalition, which supported Thursday's rally, told demonstrators to take a stand against the unfair wages.

"We can't leave it up to the administration, we have to put a stop to LTE abuse," Glasgow said.

Glasgow added that many LTEs have one or two additional jobs in order to make up for the lack of money they get from working at the union.

UW has set up a committee that deals with LTE's and their issues, but Imbrogno, who is on the committee, said he is worried that UW is "not getting the job done."

Another member of the committee, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that if UW made the LTE positions full time, he would not be able to compete for his own job and would probably be laid off, despite having worked at the Union for nine years.

Imbrogno, however, also addressed the WUFIP referendum, questioning why the Wisconsin Union needs to make the renovations to the unions.

"The university always says that the Union can't meet students' needs, and when I ask them which group could not get a meeting space, they don't give a straight answer," Imbrogno said.

Matt Rock, a UW junior, attended the rally and said he thought it was "very informative," adding it may have influenced his feelings about the referendum.

"I learned a lot about the give and take between both sides," Rock said. "Before I was in favor of the referendum, but now I'm not so sure."

Overall, Imbrogno said he was pleased with the rally.

"The rally went pretty good. I thought there was a spirited crowd," he said.